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Yo Has Spawned An Army Of Clones

Yo, a so-dumb-it’s-smart (?) app now valued at $10 million following its $1.5 million seed funding round, lets you send brief audio messages to friends that simply say “Yo.” I’m not making this up. This is Idiocracy in action, my friends.

The buzz around Yo was nearly as deafening as that around Flappy Bird for basically the same reasons: This? This is a thing?!

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Yo!

And when there’s buzz, there are those who look to ride the coattails of what they believe is the next new wave – in this case, the future of mobile messaging…perhaps. Single-purpose, push button apps may actually have a variety of use cases thanks to their simplicity, the argument goes. Yo has been warning Israeli citizens of missile strikes, for example. Yo also now has its own IFTTT channel, for a variety of alerts. But the hype around Yo has led to the creation of a variety of Yo-like services.

Some are meant to be parodies, like the hilarious Yo, Hodor, while others are sent to our inboxes with straight-faced pitches about how such-and-such is the new and improved Yo, for real.

Behold, all the many Yo clones.

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YoFrom

High school interns working in San Francisco built YoFrom, a Yo for your location. Instead of just Yo’ing, YoFrom attaches your current venue to your Yo. Tell everywhere you’ve arrived at the bar, or that you’ve just gotten into town by Yo’ing from the train station.

TAP

TAP, a self-described “Snapchat for Location” also lets you broadcast your location to friends, without you even having to unlock your phone. Founded by TED fellow Apurv Mishra, the app also claims to be 4 times faster than Yo.

aiYO

A Draper University participant has built aiYo, the “Yo for India” along with a small team. The project took about 8-10 hours to complete. aiYo is also a parody of Yo, the creators explained.

“The reason for this parody is the absurdness that we cannot comprehend. People struggle day in and day out and do not get a face to face with an investor and Yo gets a funding of $1.2 million,” said team member Rohith Veerajappa. Download: Android

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Arnold

Arnold lets you communicate with one-touch “shout-ifications.” That is, this Arnold character will talk for you, shouting your message to your friend via their smartphone. And that message can be much more than just a “Yo.”

Oye!

While some people were content sending “Yo’s” to each other, the team behind this app felt that a “Yo” wasn’t enough. With Oye, you can send an “Oye!” instead. Plus, the company told us, the app was designed to have more of an “Indian feel.”

“The Indian feeling and simplicity are what we think will differentiate Oye! from other messaging and communication apps,” they told us.

YOLO

Because how can you have a Yo without an accompanying YOLO? YOLO is pretty much just like the original Yo app except, of course, its message is different. “Open the app, tap YOLO, that’s it.” Download: Android, iOS

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Hehehe

Hehe is the Chinese version of Yo, which creator Sun Liang from HackPlan told reporters was “just a stupid app.” In other words, another parody.

“We read some news about Yo and we thought that might be a great chance to make fun of them,” he said.

AHOY

AHOY was a weekend project built by engineers at Confide, a somewhat more serious mobile messaging company backed by $2 million. Like a few of the other clones, AHOY sends its greeting alongside your current location.

Oi

sup

Bark

Bark is an app that allows you to pick a dog, and bark to everyone else with the app within one mile of where you are. The creators are pitching it as “the simplest form of communication in your neighborhood.” (And yes, it’s a joke.) You can watch the barking live here.